Sandy Pope

Can A Woman Lead The Teamsters?

We all know of the working man's plight — of outsourced jobs, weakened unions, stalled salaries. But there's still one group of workers that holds a pretty tight grip on employers: the teamsters. Their union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), is probably the most powerful of its kind in America, with a long, storied history. Its most famous leader was the infamous Jimmy Hoffa: part criminal and part worker's hero. He mysteriously disappeared in 1975; his son, Jim Hoffa, has headed the Teamsters since 1999.

But now there's a challenge to the Hoffa dynasty. And it comes in the form of a 5'6", 135-lb blond woman named Sandy Pope. Lest you scoff, understand that Pope's got genuine trucker cred. She entered the industry as a college dropout, spending years as a trucker, and has worked on behalf of unions for almost her entire professional life. Plus, she's got a black belt in tae kwon do. That all gives her a step up over Hoffa — a lawyer — in terms of relatability.

She promises to bring change to the Teamsters, who have recently suffered declining membership and unpopular settlements. But her candidacy is essentially a battle of old guard vs. the new — and, as some surely see it, men vs. women.

Today, her campaign will come to a head at a union convention in Las Vegas, where members will vote to officially include Pope's name on the ballot. She'll be up against Hoffa and a third candidate, Fred Gegare.

So what do you make of Pope's historical run? Do you think a woman can lead a key union in a male-dominated industry? Let us know what you think in the comments section.